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2
Chronicles Chapter Fifteen
2 Chronicles 15
Chapter Contents
The people make a solemn covenant with God.
The work of complete reformation appeared so difficult,
that Asa had not courage to attempt it, till assured of Divine assistance and
acceptance. He and his people offered sacrifices to God; thanksgiving for the
favours they had received, and supplication for further favours. Prayers and
praises are now our spiritual sacrifices. The people, of their own will,
covenanted to seek the Lord, each for himself, with earnestness. What is
religion but seeking God, inquiring after him, applying to him upon all
occasions? We make nothing of our religion, if we do not make heart-work of it;
God will have all the heart, or none. Our devotedness to God our Saviour,
should be avowed and shown in the most solemn and public manner. What is done
in hypocrisy is a mere drudgery.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Chronicles》
2 Chronicles 15
Verse 1
[1] And
the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded:
Spirit of God —
Both to instruct him what to say, and to enable him to say it plainly and
boldly.
Verse 3
[3] Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a
teaching priest, and without law.
Now Israel —
They have long lived without the found knowledge and worship of the true God.
Israel is here understood of the whole nation of Israel in former times, and
especially in the times of the judges: for then many times they were in a great
measure, without God and his law, and teaching priests, as plainly appears from
the book of the Judges; they were brought to all the exigencies and calamities
following; and they sometimes turned to the Lord, and he was found of them.
Verse 5
[5] And
in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came
in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries.
In those times —
When Israel lived in the gross neglect of God and his law.
No peace —
Men could not go abroad about their private occasions without great danger; as
it was in the days of Shamgar, Judges 5:6.
Verse 6
[6] And
nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all
adversity.
And nation, … —
One part of the people of Israel destroyed the other by civil wars. As all
Israel are called a nation, so the several tribes of them are sometimes called
nations.
Verse 7
[7] Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work
shall be rewarded.
Be strong — Go
on resolutely to maintain God's worship and to root out idolatry, as you have
begun to do; for this is the only method of preserving yourselves from such
calamities as your predecessors have felt.
Verse 8
[8] And
when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took
courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and
Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and
renewed the altar of the LORD, that was before the porch of the LORD.
Of Oded — Of
Azariah, verse 1, who was also called by his father's name
Oded.
Verse 12
[12] And
they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all
their heart and with all their soul;
Into covenant —
The matter of this covenant was nothing but what they were before obliged to.
And tho' no promise could lay any higher obligation upon them, than they were
already under, yet it would help to increase their sense of the obligation, and
to arm them against temptations. And by joining all together in this, they
strengthened the hands of each other
Verse 15
[15] And
all Judah rejoiced at the oath: for they had sworn with all their heart, and
sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and the LORD gave
them rest round about.
Rejoiced at the oath — The times of renewing our covenant with God, should be times of
rejoicing. It is an honour and happiness to be in bonds with God. And the
closer, the better.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles》
15 Chapter 15
Verses 1-19
Verses 1-7
And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah.
Dark shadows on a bright day
We have here shown the necessary connection between God’s service
and human weal.
I. The awful
apostasy. Turning away.
1. Practical atheism. “Without the true God.”
2. Deprived of priestly function.
3. Prevalence of moral disorder.
II. The terrible
judgments which followed apostasy.
1. Widespread anarchy.
2. Civil dissensions.
3. General calamity.
III. The way of
escape from these judgments. “The Lord is with you while ye be with Him,” etc.
1. There is a fact in Divine procedure.
2. This is a warning for the future. (J. Wolfendale.)
Inspiration and duty
I. An inspired
man is qualified to give a message.
II. An inspired man
will give his message fearlessly and successfully.
III. Inspired men,
men taught of God, not time-servers, required now. (J. Wolfendale.)
Verses 2. The Lord is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye
seek Him.
When and how long the Lord is with His people
I. What it is for
the Lord to be with His people.
1. Not His general or essential presence.
2. Nor His being with His creatures in a providential way; for so He
is with all men.
3. Nor His special presence in a providential way with His own dear
children.
4. But it is God’s gracious presence, which Moses so earnestly
entreated: “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence”; and of
which David deprecates the loss: “Cast me not away from Thy presence.” To enjoy
His presence in this sense means--
II. When or how
long will God be with His people.? “While ye be with Him.”
1. While you keep close to Him in a way of duty; while you are with
Him in prayer particularly.
2. While we have communion with them that fear the Lord. God is with
them that fear Him; and those who keep company with such persons may expect His
presence. Spiritual conversation is like putting fuel to fire; and prayer is
like the bellows which blows up the flame.
3. While ye be with Him in public worship and attend the ordinances
of His house (Acts 2:1-3).
Inferences:
1. The presence of God with His people is a most amazing instance of
Divine goodness.
2. There is nothing so desirable to a gracious soul as the presence
of God. (J. Gill, D.D.)
When will the Lord be found by His people?
I. God is to be
found by His people--
1. In conversion.
2. At the throne of grace.
3. In His public ordinances.
II. When is God to
be found by His people thus? When He is sought through the Lord Jesus Christ,
“the way, the truth, and the life.” (J. Gill, D. D.)
Being with God
To be with God is--
I. To preserve in
our minds a reverent sense of His being, presence, and government.
II. To keep close
to His laws.
III. To stand on His
side against the opposite power of darkness and sin. (Abp. Seeker.)
God with us
I. What is meant
by God with a Church? Luther used to say that there was a “great deal of
divinity in prepositions.” This word “with” has diversity as well as divinity
in its meaning. It means--
1. To be present. God present, seeing and hearing all that is said
and done.
2. Blessing. A helping, gracious presence. “The Lord was with Joseph,
and he was a prosperous man.”
3. Divine protection.
II. What is meant
by a Church with God?
1. It is a Church faithful and fearless in proclaiming God’s Word.
“Strike, but hear!” said a philosopher to an angry disputant. “Laugh, strike,
kill, but hear the Word of God!” is what the Church says to mockers and
persecutors.
2. It is a holy Church. The Emperor of Rome issued a command that all
houses, shops, and public institutions, ships or boats, named after members of
the Royal Family, should be kept clean, or forego the right to the name. “Be ye
clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.” Let every one that nameth the name of
Christ depart from iniquity.”
3. A Church with God does God’s work. A Church tries to be to men all
that Christ was, the earthly organ of His Spirit, the instrument of “the mind
of Christ.”
4. It means a Church in which every member lives in personal
communion with God. (J. M. Gibbon.)
The happiness and condition of the presence of God
I. The happiness
of the Jewish Church at that time. “The Lord is with you.” God’s presence as applied to all
righteous people implies--
1. An owning and acknowledging them to be His own peculiar people.
God’s love to His peculiar people includes in it all relations: that of a--
2. His assisting them and prospering all the works that they put
their hands to (1 Chronicles 11:9).
3. His protection and defence of them against all their enemies (Genesis 15:1; Zechariah 2:5; Isaiah 4:5; Isaiah 46:7; Numbers 23:1-30; Romans 8:31).
Inferences:
1. Let us notice what are the greatest mischiefs and who are the
chief authors of all the evils which can possibly befall a kingdom, even they
that would rob us of our God.
2. From hence we may learn the surest way to have our tranquillity
and peace secured to us.
3. If we sincerely serve God, we may comfortably and securely rest
upon Him to defend and protect us against all dangers {Proverbs 18:10; Matthew 10:29; Numbers 14:9). Luther tells a famous
story of a Bishop of Magdeburg, against whom the Duke of Saxony was preparing
to wage war; the bishop, having notice of it, betakes himself presently to his
prayers and the reforming of his Church; and when one told him what mighty
preparations were making against him, he replied, “I will take care of my
Church, and then God will fight for and take care of me”; which, when the duke
heard of, he disbanded his forces and acknowledged himself too weak to deal
with that man who had engaged God on his side (Psalms 3:6).
II. The condition upon
which the happiness of God’s presence is to be enjoyed, while we are with Him.
To be with God is to be a holy people. Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of a temple
upon which was written, “No unholy thing must come near this place”; and this
is God’s inscription (Hebrews 1:13). Conclusion: ‘Tis reported
of the Prince of Orange at the Battle of Newport, that he said to his soldiers,
when they had the sea on one side and the Spaniards on the other, “You must
either eat up the Spaniards or drink up the sea”; so we must either conquer our
lusts or drink down the devouring fire of God’s wrath. Let us apply ourselves
to the service of God sincerely, and then the “Lord will be with us.” (E.
Lake, D. D.)
God’s presence with His people the spring of their prospe
rity:--
I. God may be said
to be with men--
1. In respect of the omnipresence of His essence (1 Kings 8:27; Psalms 139:7-12).
2. In respect of personal union. “God was with him” (Acts 10:38).
3. In respect of the covenant of grace.
4. In respect of providential dispensations. This is twofold.
II. A people’s
abiding with God is twofold.
1. In personal obedience.
2. In national administrations.
III. Observations.
1. All outward flourishing or prosperity of a people doth not always
argue the special presence of God with them. The things required to make
success and prosperity an evidence of the presence of God are--
2. Even great afflictions, eminent distresses, long perplexities, may
have a consistency with God’s special presence. (J. Owen, D. D.)
The presence of God
I. Let our first
use be to instruct us particularly.
1. What this special presence is, and wherein it doth consist.
2. What it is for us to abide with God, so as we may enjoy it.
(a) Ask counsel at His hand, look to Him for direction in all our
affairs;
(b) trust in Him for protection;
(c) universally own God’s concernments in the world. His presence with
us is the owning of our concernments; and certainly He expects that we abide
with Him in the owning of His. “The Lord’s portion is His people.”
II. Look on this
presence of God as our main concernment (Psalms 4:1-8.).
III. Whilst we have
any pledge of the presence of God with us, let us not be greatly moved, nor
troubled by any difficulties we may meet with.
IV. Let us fix our
thoughts on the things which lie in a tendency towards the confirming of God’s
special providential presence with us. (J. Owen, D. D.)
The Divine protection promised only to an obedient people
I. A grand
promise. “The Lord is with you while ye be with Him.”
1. God is said to be with any people--
2. A nation is with God--
II. An awful
threatening.
1. There are several ways in which we may forsake God. But that
against which it is most necessary to warn Christians is the forsaking of God
by a wicked life, by dissolute manners, by living as if there were no God, or
as if we were not to stand before Him in judgment.
2. God forsakes a people, thus unworthy of His presence, by the calamities
and miseries with which He visits them. (S. Partridge, M.A.)
The prophet’s maxim recommended and confirmed
(a missionary sermon):--
I. It may tend to
recommend this Divine maxim if we consider--
1. The effect it had on him to whom it was addressed.
2. The blessing it brought down on those who regarded it.
II. Let us confirm
the prophet’s axiom. The Lord is with them, and with them alone, who are with
Him. Consider--
1. The evils which would result from the blessing of God being on our
labours while we are not with Him.
2. The pleasing results which would follow if God were to be with a
people for so long a period as He was with this people.
Verse 3-4
Now for a long season.
The schism of the ten tribes
These words--
I. Suggest a
warning. A land “without teaching priests” soon realises the rest of the text by becoming
“without the true God, and without law.”
II. Give
encouragement to send “teaching priests” on their holy mission to bring the people “to the law and
to the testimony,” so that they may hear “the whole counsel of God.” (Joseph
B. Owen, M.A.)
Verse 7
Be ye Strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak.
Religious resolution
I. That resolution
is necessary in promoting the cause of religion. Resolution is the essence of
that mental strength which gives energy to all the powers and faculties of body and mind. It is
composed of love, zeal, and confidence. Such resolution has always had a
principal influence in effecting all the great things which have ever been
effected by the men of the world. Necessary in religion. The Scriptures
inculcate it (2 Chronicles 19:11; Ezra 10:4). Examples of resolution:
Moses, Elijah, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, John the Baptist, Peter and
John, Paul, Luther, Calvin, etc.
II. That the
friends of God have good ground for such unshaken resolution in promoting such
a great and good design.
1. The friends of God have often been succeeded in their sincere
attempts to promote His glory in the salvation of sinners.
2. The promotion of religion is such a noble and laudable design that
it is even glorious to fail in the attempt.
3. Those who espouse the cause of religion have reason to expect the
peculiar presence and assistance of God in their pious exertions.
4. They also have the
approbation and prayers of all good men.
5. They are equally sure of the esteem and affection of all those
whom they shall be instrumental in converting.
6. Their efforts shall finally meet a glorious recompense of reward.
III. Inferences.
1. That the friends
of God have been very negligent in promoting His cause in the world.
2. That none will ever do much to forward the work of spreading the
gospel without a large share of Christian zeal and resolution. (N.
Emmons, D.D.)
Strong hands
In the Bible, the human hand is often used as a figure to express
actions of life.
As a symbol, Elisha poured water over the hands of Elijah; meaning that he
would henceforth be his servant, and minister unto him in deeds of kindness.
The reason why the hand represents so many things is because of its manifold
uses. What firmness in its grasp, and what delicacy in its touch! It can forge
an anchor or make a needle; fell a tree or feel to read the Bible; and do a
thousand things which would seem very wonderful if they were not so familiar.
“Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak.”
I. That man will
have strong hands who regularly lifts them up in prayer. If you lift up your
hands in prayer as the apostles did, you shall have strength to do great deeds
for God.
II. Let your hands
be strong in cleaving to the Cross of Christ. (W. Birch.)
Success the certain fruit of faithful labours
Applying these words to the work of Sabbath schools, consider--
I. The work.
1. Its object is the benefit of the rising generation.
2. Its tendencies as to the interests of society at large are
beneficial.
3. It accords with the spirit of Christianity and the predictions of
sacred writ (Isaiah 11:9).
II. The
exhortation.
1. To faith.
2. To union.
3. To perseverance.
III. The reward.
This is to be found--
1. In the satisfaction of your own minds.
2. In the success of your efforts.
3. In the approbation of your Lord. (N. Hutchings.)
Verses 12-15
And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their
fathers.
The covenant renewed
“Entering into a covenant” is what we name “a revival”; they made
it a national act, we separate it entirely from political affairs.
I. The
preparations for revival.
1. The persons who led. A faithful prophet and an obedient king. Of
Azariah we know nothing beyond the short record of this chapter. This suggests
that a man is important to the world only for the work he does. The king was
ready to learn from this obscure prophet and to lead the people to
consecration. Happy the pastor who finds the wealth, authority, and zeal of his
Church willing to receive the sacred message humbly from his lips and
faithfully lead where he points the way.
2. The truths they used. The same that inspire every true revival
(verse 2). Divine faithfulness, human responsibility, mercy for the penitent,
punishment for the hardened.
II. The revival. In
this blessed work there was--
1. Repentance.
2. Atonement (verse 11).
3. Consecration.
III. The joy of
reconciliation (verse 15). Lessons:
1. The reformer must begin at his own house.
2. Service for God may cost pain.
3. The true leader is called of God.
4. Every true leader is a rallying-point for others (verse 9). (Monday
Club Sermons.)
A revival
I. We see here
that the heart of a revival lies in a renewal of the covenant of the Church
with God. An awakened Church is the pioneer of an awakened world,
2. A second feature in this ancient revival of religion was a public
proclamtion of a revived faith before the world. Religious men are too much in
earnest to be still about it. They are moved by a great power. It will express
itself as becomes a great power. It is the instinct of religious faith to bear
its witness to the world.
III. The old Jewish
revival was attended with a great influx of converts from without. So commonly
works a pure revival upon the world. Very rare is the exception in which the
heart of the world does not respond to the heart of the Church.
IV. A fourth
feature of a true revival of religion is a thorough reformation of public and
private morals. To put away idolatrous worship was what we should call a reformation
in morals. Idolatry was immorality concentrated in its most hideous forms. No
religious zeal could have been genuine in a monarch which did not sweep the
land clean of them.
V. Such awakenings
are often followed by periods of temporal prosperity. “The Lord gave them rest
round about.” No other civilising power equals that of true religion. It never
hurts a man for any of the right uses of this world to make a Christian of him.
(A. Phelps.)
A revival: an imperious necessity
The text gives an account of the ancient revival of religion under
King Asa. Other revivals are portrayed by the sacred writers. From these we
learn--
I. That revivals
are by no means new things. Nor are they things of modern invention.
II. That the
progress of religion is not in a uniform steady line.
III. That revivals
of religion ordinarily commence in humble and obscure ways, and are ordinarily
helped on by the humblest instrumentality.
IV. That they are
ordinarily accompanied by a great deal of what people are pleased to term
excitement.
V. That true
revival of religion are marked by marvellous transformations of character and
reformations in the life. (G. E. Reed.)
And all Judah rejoiced at
the oath.
Judah’s solemn engagement
I. The solemn
engagement into which they entered, and the temper they manifested therein.
1. They bound themselves to nothing new. It was to seek the Lord God
of their fathers.
2. They swore to do this.
3. They entered into this engagement with great sincerity and with
great cheerfulness.
II. The happy consequence
of judah’s solemn engagement. “The
Lord was found of them.” (Job Orton.)
And He was found of them.--The search
that always finds:--
I. The seeking.
The highest bliss is to find God, the next highest is to seek Him.
1. Our text lays emphasis on the whole-heartedness of the people’s
seeking after God. One reason why the great mass of professing Christians make
so little of their religion is because they are only half-hearted in it. If you
divide a river into two streams the force of each is less than half the power
of the original current; and the chances are that you will make a stagnant
marsh where there used to be a flowing stream. “All in all or not at all” is
the rule for life in all departments.
2. “They sought; Him with all their heart.” That does not mean that
there are to be no other desires, for it is a great mistake to pit religion
against other things which are meant to be its instruments and its helps.
3. The one token of seeking God is casting out idols. There must be
detachment if there is to be attachment. If some climbing plant, for instance,
has twisted itself round the unprofitable thorns in the hedge, the gardener,
before he can get it to go up the support that it is meant to encircle, has
carefully to detach it from the stays to which it has wantonly clung, taking
care that in the process he does not break its tendrils and destroy its power
of growth. The heart must be emptied of base liquors if the new wine of the
kingdom is to be poured into it.
II. The finding
which crowns such seeking.
1. Anything is possible rather than that a whole-hearted search after God should be a
vain search. For there are in that search two seekers--God is seeking for us
more truly than we are seeking for Him.
2. This is the only direction for a man’s desires and aims in which
disappointment is an impossibility.
3. Our wisdom is to make this search. What would you think of a
company of gold-seekers, hunting about in some exhausted claim for hypothetical
grains--ragged, starving--and all the while in the next gully were lying lumps
of gold for the picking up? And that figure fairly represents what people do
and suffer who seek for good and do not seek after God.
II. The rest which
ensues on finding God. We have no immunity from toil and conflict, but disturbance
around is a very small matter if there be a better thing--rest within. A vessel
with an outer casing and a layer of air between may be kept at a temperature
above that of the external atmosphere. So we may have conflict and strife, and
yet a better rest than that of my text may be ours. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Happy earnestness
This verse represents well the happy combination of sacrament and
life. It brings before us whole-heartedness for God, with special regard to two
of its features.
I. Joy. “And all
Judah rejoiced at the oath,” etc. A wholeness of devotedness to God is
consistent with every department of activity and every form of interest which
is not in itself
sinful. It is as a soul to the body of all secular occupation, however
absorbing. The wide onward lift of the tidal wave in mid-ocean does not more
interfere with the commerce of the countries, the heightening sun of the
springtime does not more embarrass the progress of the land over which it
smiles, than the full-hearted service of God breaks in upon the lawful
interests of a man among the engagements of his every-day existence. This joy
implies--
1. Enthusiasm. This may be reckoned the atmosphere which surrounds
the joy of whole-heartedness for God.
2. Willingness. A wide compliance with a competent and kindly force
that presses on us from without. Predominant willingness contributes largely to
a Christian man’s joy.
3. Rightness. The approval of conscience.
4. Undividedness of affection.
II. Prosperousness.
“And He was found of them: and Jehovah gave them rest round about.” This
signifies--
1. That we find what we seek. There are neighbourhoods where the
mists lie so often and so long upon the grand outlines of the landscape, that a
clear day is in some sense a day of discovery, of “finding,” though nothing is
there then which was not there always. There have been those who for years have
looked through a filmy dimness of eyesight upon those they loved, whose
movements were to them like the movements of featureless shades; when the films
were one day purged from the eyes was it not almost more than a figure of
speech they spoke when they said they had “found” those loved faces and forms
again? So this energising of the heart for God restores vision, and vision
restores reality. God in Christ becomes near.
2. That we miss much that we had hitherto found. Hostile movements
from around are comparatively allayed, and the hush that has fallen upon these
reflects itself upon the soul in restfulness. (J. A. Kerr
Bain, M.A.)
Verse 17
Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.
Spiritual backsliding
We learn from the text that we cannot always infer the state of
the heart from external symptoms.
I. You may have
the appearance of something wrong while the heart is sound. This was Asa’s
case.
II. Conversely you
may have the heart unsound whilst as yet there is but little trace of it in the
heart and life. In tracing this disease, consider--
1. Its working.
2. Its symptoms. There was a time when you felt God to be your “chief
good”--do you feel Him less so now? There was a time when you delighted in
prayer--has it become more of a task now? Once you thought much of the work of
Christ and longed to be with Him in heaven--are you now more contented with
earth and more disposed to say, “It is good for us to be here”? Once you found
sufficient scope for fervent affections in secret communion with God, in
meditating on His perfections, and in admiring His love in the gift of His
Son--now do your affections seem stifled unless you have some showy work on
which to fasten them, some dazzling novelty with which to engage them? (H.
Melvill, B.D.)
Caution in judging others
How ready are we to condemn and find fault with our neighbour, if
his conduct do not seem in every respect consistent with his Christian
profession! How soon we think he may be nothing but a hypocrite if we observe
certain things in which he fails to carry out the principles of the gospel,
though perhaps we know little or nothing of his peculiar circumstances,
dangers, and temptations! It is enough for us that the “high places” are not
“taken away”; immediately we condemn Asa, and infer that his heart cannot be
right with God. Let the text teach charity first; and while we are not to shut
our eyes to what is wrong, or count it matter of indifference whether or not
the “high places are removed,” when the removing is that to which the Christian
stands pledged, let us be cautious of judging our brethren, and delivering a
verdict against them, when we are told, though “the high places were not taken
away out of Israel, nevertheless, the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.” (H.
Melville, B. D.)
Perfection, limited by power
Some of you might, indeed, be ready to make a wrong use of our
text. You may say, “If Asa’s heart was perfect with God, though he did not
remove the high places, so may ours be, though you may see things in our
conduct which may not be wholly consistent with a Christian profession.” Yet,
before using the case of Asa to justify the assertion that your heart may be
right whilst your conduct is wrong, it may be as well to observe how far Asa
had gone in the extermination
of idols. The text merely says that the “high places” were “not taken away out
of Israel.” Asa was king of Judah, but not of Israel; though he would seem to
have possessed much influence in that kingdom. There was no reason to doubt
that, where his power was clear, he had exerted it in restoring the worship of
the true God; if he had not he would not have punished his nearest relations.
You read that he removed Maachah, his mother, being queen, “because she had
made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt
it at the brook Kidron.” You learn, in like manner, what was done with the idol
of the high priest. So that, if he did not carry reform into Israel, he was
vigorous in its application in his own fancily and household. When you can say
as much--when you can say that, to the utmost of your power, you have laboured
to serve God in your own family and household and neighbourhood, maintaining
His cause among all those who come more immediately within the sphere of your
influence--then you may hope that, as with Asa, the heart is perfect with God, though
there are high places yet, in far distant lands, whose overthrow you have not
attempted. (H. Melville, B. D.)
Unsoundness of heart suspected on insufficient grounds
And yet, in speaking on the case of the backslider in heart, it
becomes us to take heed that we make not those sad who may be disposed, without
sufficient cause, to write bitter things against themselves. It is not every
person who suspects himself of unsoundness of heart who is really a backslider.
We must declare there is commonly much greater cause for fear with your
forward, confident, bustling professors, who would be quite offended if
suspected of spiritual decline, than with the timid, scrupulous individual who
is always ready to think worse of himself than others think of him. Tried by
conscience--alas! what hardens conscience like contact with the world?--it may
still make a man accuse himself of backsliding who is all the while “pressing
toward the mark for the prize of his high calling in Christ.” Bodily sickness
may be regarded as the taking away of the quickenings of the Spirit; the
clouding of the understanding, and the clogging of the affections, will often
make a believer fearful of spiritual relapse; he mistakes the infirmity of the
body for disease of the soul--a decay of memory for a decay of piety; as though
there must be less of devotedness, of abhorrence of sin, of meek reliance upon
Christ in our dangers, our confusions, our difficulties in spiritual exercises,
because of that unenlightenment of mind which is but the result, or symptom, of
declining strength. Though a person may be quite correct in calling himself a
backslider, yet the probabilities are greater for him who has no fears and no
suspicions that he is really a backslider than for another who does not wait to
be charged, but is painfully apprehensive of being in fault. For certainly, as
a general rule in religion, to advance is, in some senses, to appear to go
back. To grow in grace is to grow in knowledge of ourselves; and, alas! who can
know himself better, and not think himself worse? If, however, we would not
have the timid unduly severe in accusing themselves, we would have all
diligent, and him “that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (H.
Melville, B. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》